Just a month before the start of the season, Penn State men’s basketball coach Pat Chambers is stepping down from his position, the school announced Wednesday.
The news was initially reported by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein. Assistant coach Jim Ferry will serve as the interim coach for the 2020–21 season.
Chambers, 49, has spent the last nine seasons at Penn State, and last year led the Nittany Lions to a 21–10 overall record and 11–9 Big Ten record—the latter representing his best mark while at the school.
Penn State was ranked as high as No. 9 in the Associated Press poll this past season, with wins over ranked conference foes Maryland, Michigan State, Iowa and Ohio State. The program appeared poised to make its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2011 before this year’s event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In July, former Penn State guard Rasir Bolton—who transferred to Iowa State prior to the 2019–20 season—said in a statement on Twitter that the reason he decided to leave Penn State was because of a comment made by Chambers that referenced “a noose around my neck.”
Bolton said that, in January 2019, Chambers said in a meeting, “I need to get some of this pressure off you. I want to loosen the noose that’s around your neck.”
“A ‘noose’ around my neck is why I left Penn State,” Bolton wrote on Twitter. “Head Coach Patrick Chambers, the day after his one-game suspension in January 2019, in talking to me referenced a ‘noose’ around my neck. A noose; symbolic of lynching, defined as one of the most powerful symbols directed at African Americans invoking the history of lynching, slavery and racial terrorism. Due to other interactions with Coach, I knew this was no slip of the tongue.”
Chambers’s resignation comes after Penn State conducted an internal investigation of the coach. After Bolton’s comments, Chambers issued a statement apologizing for his choice of words.
“I failed to comprehend the experiences of others, and the reference I made was hurtful, insensitive and unacceptable,” Chambers said. “I cannot apologize enough for what I said, and I will carry that forever.”
After Penn State announced Chambers’s departure, he issued a statement, per Jeff Goodman, saying he would be taking a “step back” from coaching while thanking the Penn State community.
“Today, I’m announcing my departure from Penn State,” Chambers wrote. “I am so proud of all our program has accomplished these past nine years, and I will be forever grateful to the Penn State community for its ongoing support.”
